The Grenada gazette., 1887-09-17
KILLED BY CORSETS.
A Physiological Lesson Deduced
From a London Inquest.
History of an Important Article OF Femi-
nine Wear-Opinions Of the Great Ma
poleon-What Eminent Surgeon
and Others Have Thought Of 1t.

The other day an inquest was held OF
. asingle woman, fifty-two years of age
residing in the Gloucester road, Re
gents Park, who died suddenly tn,
preceding Sunday evening as she wa,
leaving Park Chapel. The house sur
geon of the Northwest London Hospi
tai, who had made an examination O.
the body, testified before the coroner
that she was a woman who had laceC
yery tightly. In fact. she must at al
times have found ordinary respiration
task of extreme difficulty, and Ill
timately. the lungs not being allowed
free play, a blood vessel had burst
producing syncope and death. The jury
returned 4 verdict in accordance witt
the evidence, and we are entitled to ask
whether the most recent addition to the
list of victims to tight lacing will have
any influence in staying the prevalence
of barbarous and mischieyous fash
ion. 1t is much, however, to be feared
that all the homilies of the medical fac
ulty, reiterated over and over again,
will fail to persuade ladies that tight
lacing is sure means of running theil
health and very often has fatal results
while it will be quite as difficult to per.
suade the fair sex that the vast major.
ity of sensible men look upon an "houl.
glass" or "waSp" waist as not only ug-
ly, but ridiculous. The instrument Of
construction applied to the chest was an
invention Of depraved vanity, with a
view of giving to the female figure a
supposed lightness which it ought not to
possess, or to conceal some deformities
which stays very frequently aggravate
instead of allaying. Jean Jacques
Rousseau, with all the power of his
genius and all the warmth of the inter.
est which he took in youth, exposed
the lamentable corruption Of taste
which asserts that the figure is excel
lent in proportion to the smallness of
the waist. This philosopher Of Geneva
exercised more social influence per-
haps in his time than any writer in
Europe and for while stays went out
of fashion in France. Stiff corsets were
still worn by the ladies Of the old court,
but sensible mothers came to a com.
mon agreement that their daughters
should subject themselves to this vol
untary punishment at as late period
as possible, and not until their we'd
ding day were they allowed to wear
stays. The Revolution swept away the
corset altogether, as well as hoop pet
ticoats; but stays again made their ap-
pearanee toward the end of the First
Empire. A very harmless affair,
scarcely broader than the fascie
mamillares of the Romans, was the
imperial bodice, for waists were then
worn excessively short, and the stays
were without busks, stiff pieces of
whalebone or steel plates. Modified,
however, as they were, the strong
common sense of Napoleon revolted
against the reintroduction of the gar
ment "Corvisart," said the ruler,
whose business it was to know eyery
thing, to his physician, "the corset is
coquetry Of the worst taste; it tortures
women and maltreats their progeny; it
means frivolity, it heralds decadence." Z"
These words were full Of sagacity,
but when the mysterious DEGREES Of
fashion-decrees which are as occult az
those of fatc-brought about the re-
vIval OF long waists, tight stays be-
came once more the mode, and the fe-
male chest was bruised by that dread.
ini instrument Of torment, the steel
busk, which had originally been
brought into France in 1882 by Cath
arine de Medicis. The busk was
. long, flat, rigid strip of wood or
whalebone, and some times Of metal.
The old surgeons. Roderick and Am.
broise Pare, had inveighed against Il:
Montaigne and Riolau had laughed At
1t; the Abbe Outlet had preached
against it, and the Emperor Joseph
bad striven to drive it out Of Austria by
ordaining that all women leading inn
moral lives should wear stays with stin
busks. Medical warnings, satire, ser.
mons, cdicts Of police. had all been in
vain.
In the present epoch, although tight
lacing is fearfully prevalent, and is
staying its thousands Of silly votaries
every year, the busk has ceased to be
m instrument Of torture. It Is an in.
tcgral part Of the corset, whereas the
old busk. which was covered with
chamois leather, could be made to slide
in and out in q vertical tuck In tho
front Of the Stays. The modern busk
h fastened and divided down the mid
Gle me tho trcs Of . Mexican saddle; u
y made Of very Aexible steel. which